A team of Southtown’s highest ranked Archeologists and Paleontologists recently set out to research more on Southtown in the 1970’s, before the time of Skank Skates, Black Sheep, or Dumb Records. They were able to uncover some cold hard facts on The Southtown Band along with a photo (above) and a letter from one of the members themselves. From the letter:

Personnel are, left to right: Dave Littler/drums, Jim “Cicerco Slim” Bukiet/harmonica and vocals, Mike Evans/guitar, Victor “Val” Garanin/bass and John Bulli/guitar.

The band worked from 1973-76; shortly after our dissolution Jim and Val formed the World War III Blues Band, which worked with various lineups for another two or three years.

Our name was chosen because Jim, Val, and Paul Robinette, our orininal drummer, lived in the Southtown nighborhood during ’73. Jim, Val, Mike and I were students at what was then Sangamon State University. The photo was taken by Naomi Ramage, Dave’s girlfriend, who as you can imagine, had to dodge South Grand traffic to get the shot!

The Breakfast Diner pictured above is not the building that houses Southtown skate park Skank Skates. You can find more historic Southtown photos and older photos of Black Sheep on our Black Sheep flickr album.